Hasta La Gadget!

Palm fanatics who have been waiting for upgraded versions of the Pre and Pixi can finally get their hands on the nifty new smartphones today from Verizon. The pricing for the two phones is fairly standard–the Pre Plus costs $149.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a two-year contract, and the Pixi Plus costs $99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a two-year contract.

Analyst Sascha Segan liked both phones, awarding each 3.5 stars. (Click to read the Pre Plus review and the Pixi Plus review.) Segan noted that both the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus were improvements over their predecessors. Both devices come with a feature that turns your phone into a Wi-Fi hot spot, and each device doubles the storage space of its previous version.

It’s classic manipulative psychology: do something awful, then scale it back a bit later. You’ll come out looking good, and still get what you wanted all along.

Verizon Wireless just dropped ten handsets from the list of devices that qualify for its new, repulsive $350 early termination fee (ETF), Wireless Week reports. The list of “advanced devices” now only includes smartphones and netbooks, and no longer appears to include feature phones.

Back in December, the FCC asked Verizon to provide details on its new ETF program and why it doubled the ETF from $175 to $350 for customers ending two-year contracts early, and why it doesn’t pro-rate the ETF so that it declines to zero at the end of two years.

“Customers as a whole would be worse off if Verizon Wireless were to [pro-rate the ETF to zero] because early terminations occur disproportionately in the early part of the contract term, and relatively few customers terminate near the end of the contract term,” the company said in response, adding that if the ETF was reduced to zero at the end, they’d have to raise the ETF even higher than $350 to cover themselves.

A month later, that beautiful logic is still sinking in over here; what do you all think?

Motorola launched a new Android phone in Korea this week, which appears to be coming to the United States at a future time.

The oddly-named Motorola Motoroi, which runs Android 2.0, “is expected in other markets around the world and we have no additional news to share at this time,” a Motorola spokesperson said Tuesday.

Oddly enough, the only person to confirm that the phone will be shipped to the U.S. is a senior vice president of the Motoroi’s carrier, SK Telecom — who would have absolutely no say in whether the phone ever arrives on American shores. Still, that didn’t keep Bae Joon-dong, a senior vice president at SK Telecom, from making it official: “”The Motoroi is a different model from the Droid, (Motorola’s Android
smartphone launched in the United States), and it will be launched in
the United States around March,” Joon-dong said, according to the English-language Korea Herald.

Here’s a list of the reported features, attributed to Nexus404 until we can track down the specs:

If you’re a T-Mobile customer with a friend or loved one in Haiti, here’s a bit of good news: T-Mobile will waive the tolls associated with international calls to the beleaguered country until Jan. 31, and retroactive to the date of the quake, or Jan. 12.

(Update 5 PM ET): Vonage has also jumped on the bandwagon. Vonage is giving all U.S. callers (not just subscribers) free calls to Haiti. Users can dial 800-809-2503 to place a call, according to the company’s Twitter account.

T-Mobile customers on the ground in Haiti can also roam on the island’s T-Mobile partner networks for free for the same period, T-Mobile added.

According to the company, T-Mobile will remove the charges from its customers’ bills.

“Our company and our employees care deeply for our customers, and we
know that many customers have been directly impacted by the disaster in
Haiti,” said Robert Dotson, president and chief executive of T-Mobile USA, in a statement. “While our
thoughts go out to those in Haiti who are suffering so greatly at this
time, our promise is to help people connect with those who matter most.
I can think of no better time to demonstrate this commitment.”

Users have a number of options to donate to the Haiti cause, either via text or online.

T-Mobile has also agreed to donate generators and other equipment as part of the process of rebuilding the Haitian infrastructure, the company said.